While I already owned the Frankenstein movie as a part of the Frankenstein Legacy set, it’s good to see all of these movies in one collection. They’ve all been available on DVD previously but in various other box sets. Surprisingly, these four movies were collected and released on Laser Disc in 1994 under the exact same title as part of a 3-disc set!

What I wish they would’ve included was Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff. I know it’s not based on a Universal Monster, but it is a Universal horror comedy and features Universal’s most popular horror icon. Seems like a no-brainer to have included it here as a bonus movie. 1941’s Hold That Ghost would’ve been another good choice for Abbott & Costello horror comedy completists!

Anyway, if you want my thoughts on the Mummy movie, click here. As for the rest, it’s a case of diminishing returns. The Frankenstein movie is rightfully considered a comedy classic. It’s good but it does make me a bit sad to see the monsters played for laughs. It’s almost like it’s mocking them. I don’t consider this canon at all in the Universal Monsters universe!

When Abbott & Costello meet the Invisible Man and Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde but affairs are passable but nothing exceptional. At least …Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde features Boris Karloff in the role of Dr. Jekyll. Unfortunately, it was a stuntman who played the role of Mr. Hyde. Also, that film seemed a bit more straight-forward. There were long scenes that didn’t feature Abbott or Costello (unless I missed it, I don’t think they appeared until 10 minutes or so into the movie) and the jokes were sparse.

By the way, it’s interesting to note that the only time Universal took a crack at Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was in an Abbott & Costello movie. Then again, seems like every studio but Universal had tried some variation of the novel, so maybe that’s why Universal had stayed away.

I like to imagine that if the comedy duo’s popularity hadn’t dwindled and Universal hadn’t dropped them, we’d probably have gotten Bud and Lou interacting with the likes of the Phantom of the Opera and the Creature from the Black Lagoon, but it wasn’t meant to be.

The Frankenstein movie is essential viewing while the rest are merely a decent way to waste your time, but I can’t imagine any hardcore Universal Monster fan (such as myself) not wanting to have any of these movies in their collection.

Universal Studios’ “Universal Monsters” are the true classic icons of horror. Everyone knows these portrayals of Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster and the like. The movies set the bar for horror during their golden years and continue to impact the way horror movies are viewed and thought of today (if you don’t believe, just look at all the merchandise they get during Halloween season).

I’ve loved these movies for as long as I can remember. There’s a charm to these movies that cannot be matched. The atmosphere, the production and the characters are classic in every sense of the word.

Join me as I take a look at this great collection of movies…

1920s

The Universal Studios’ “Monsters” group of films got its unofficial start during the silent movie era with 1923’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which starred “The Man of 1,000 Faces” Lon Chaney, Sr. Of course, Chaney’s son, Lon Jr. is well-known for having played the Wolf Man throughout the 1940s and also taking turns as Frankenstein’s Monster and Dracula.

Bolstered by the success of The Hunchback of Notre Dame and 1925’s The Phantom of the Opera (again, with Chaney in the starring role), Universal released a handful of other horror & thriller films in the 1920s that would eventually fall under the Universal Monsters branding when it came to the opinions of fans and Universal Pictures. One of these movies is The Man Who Laughs (1928), which is listed as a great source of inspiration in the creation of the DC Comics villain The Joker.

1930s

The 1930s brought us the golden age of the macabre creatures that roamed the Universal lot when Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), The Mummy (1932), The Invisible Man (1933) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935) broke ground and shocked & awed audiences and made quite a profit in the process. These movies made Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff two of the biggest names in Hollywood during that era and Claude Rains’ starring role in The Invisible Man propelled him to critical acclaim and respected roles outside of horror films. Unfortunately, for Lugosi and Karloff, their successes in the horror genre would forever typecast them, despite the fact that both of them held true acting talent and loads of charisma.

In fact, so popular were Lugosi and Karloff that only four Universal horror flicks were made in the 1930s that did not star one, the other or both: The Cat Creeps, Werewolf of London, The Invisible Man and Dracula’s Daughter.

During this time, legit horror was very much what many of these movies were (later films became kinda schlocky). Dracula and Frankenstein were especially fearsome for their time. These movies are creepy even to this day, imagine what they must’ve been like in the 1931!